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Message:: [QUOTE="scottishmoney, post: 1632219, member: 12789"]Titanium is not expensive so much from demand is the fact that it is difficult to work.  Back in the late 50s and early 1960s the only source for titanium was in the USSR.  Titanium was needed by Lockheed for parts of the SR-71 Blackbird, and through various channels the US government purchased the necessary titanium from the Soviets for "research purposes" and of course didn't tell them what they were really using it for.  A few years later that same titanium went back over the USSR at 20.000 metres above them - and just out of missile range!  The USSR could bring down a U-2, but they never got close to "Habu". And all these 40+ years later I am still proud of that amazing accomplishment - the SR-71 is still the fastest and highest bird ever built - using 1950's technology and designed by the great Kelly Johnson.  Sure it set published records, but only a few in the know really know what it was truly capable of.  Spasiba dlya vce tovarischii!  As a military industrial complex brat with a family member high up in the programme I got the unique opportunity to sit in the cockpit when I was an anklebiter.  Still love the bird that put the beans on our dinner table.[/QUOTE]